BELOKHOROVKE, Ukraine – On the riverbank, the chaotic scene took place on a spring day: the tanks were destroyed, remnants of pontoons, piles of branches torn by explosions and bodies of Russian soldiers, some half buried in mud.

In the woods, a short walk showed pieces of Russian military uniform hanging in the treesfrightening memories of the soldiers who violently died there.

The failed river crossing that occurred at this point for several days in early May was one of those deadly encounters of war for the Russian army.

His forces tried to surround the Ukrainian soldiers with nearby city of Sievierodonetsk, but instead they trapped themselves, covered by the river and a Ukrainian front line. Even 400 Russian soldiers were killedmostly by artillery attacks.

As the war raged in the rolling plains and forests of eastern Ukraine, troop maneuvers usually became attempt to catch the enemy. But, as the deadly showdown on the bridge showed, the tactic carries serious risk.

After failing to capture major cities like kyiv or cut off the entire Black Sea coast, the Russian army tried to organize a large siege around Ukrainian troops in the East. That effort seems difficult now that Ukraine has blocked one of the main advance routes, near the city of Izyum.

Therefore, the immediate goal of the Russian forces became a smaller perimeter around Sievierodonetsk, the easternmost city in the Donbas region, which remains under Ukrainian control. Ang artillery bombing of Russian troops approaching from three sides they destroyed the cityleaving it without water or electricity and killing at least six people on the last day.

Russia’s strategy is to use the blunt instrument of the large artillery of his army to attack Ukrainian forces, gradual development in the Luhansk region of the Donbas.

Western military analysts and intelligence officials believe that Moscow’s forces will face brutal urban fighting if they try to fully capture Sievierodonetsk and they will find it difficult to conduct an offensive into deeper Ukraine.

A fence around the city it was a harrowing hope for the soldiers.

“I try not to think about it,” said Ivan Sichkar, a Ukrainian soldier already examined the destruction suffered by the surrounding Russian force. “If I think about what I am surroundedI don’t have time to do anything else. “

The new goal of the Russians was focused on combat a thin facade of 120 kilometers to the Donbas. It aims to advance from the north and south to close the only supply line left by Ukraine in the city of Sievierodonetsk.

On Tuesday, the Russian army advanced from the south, forcing Ukrainian troops to retreat from the small town of Svitlodarsk to prevent the Russians from surrounding the town and catching the soldiers inside. And in its report on Wednesday night, the Ukrainian General Staff mentioned the intensification of attacks by Russian helicopters and planes to support ground troops in the east.

Pension increase

such as Russia it is only barely moving forward in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin mobilized on Wednesday to strengthen support at home, it was announced increases for pensions and the minimum wage and making his first journey to meet the wounded soldiers. “They were all heroes,” he said at a military hospital.

Putin also signed an opening decree a fast path to Russian citizenship for Ukrainians living in areas controlled by the Russian army, a further step towards the annexation of the territory of southeastern Ukraine occupied by Russia.

While Putin tried to reassure ordinary Russians, Ukraine’s Western allies tried to keep pressure on his government.

In Ankara, on Wednesday there were talks between Turkey, Finland and Sweden on Turkish concerns about the request of the two Nordic countries to join NATO. At a press conference after five hours of negotiations, Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said it was necessary to keep more agreements.

“Turkey hasn’t been pressed for time,” Kalin said. “No process can move forward without a response to Turkey’s security concerns.”

The siege strategy brought far -reaching political benefits to Russia during its protracted conflict in the region, where Russian -backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces for eight years before a massive invasion this year. .

The two ceasefires, known as minsk agreements and considered beneficial to Russia, they followed Russia’s successful siege by Ukrainian troops to the east in 2014 and 2015.

But in Belokhorovke, a small coal mining town on the banks of the Seversky Donets River, things changed earlier this month, at least temporarily slowing down Russia’s progress.

A tour of the “ear”the

Ukrainian soldiers called the area to participate in that battle “ear” around the bend in the river where the fiercest fighting took place. The Ukrainian military accompanied journalists from The New York Times to the scenelocated on the front line that in most of the Donbas region forms that muddy and strong rivernow overgrown with spring rains.

Sunlight filters the leaves of a dense and quiet forest that covers the flood beside the river, which is the place where the Ukrainians killed the Russians. Buzz the mosquito. In their area, the smell of rotting corpses stinks.

“Russia’s corpses start here,” Sichkar said as he circled the bend of a dirty road that stretched nearly a mile in the woods to the riverbank. At this point, there are scattered 15 armored vehicles caught fire.

“The Russians want a small victory,” said Colonel Dmytro Kashenko, the Ukrainian officer who led the counterattack on the pontoon. “They tried in kyiv, they tried in Kharkov, and they lost. They tried to win anything.”

The Seversky Donets River, which blocks a winding path in eastern Ukraine, is a natural barrier for the advancement of Russia. Areas suitable for pontoon crossings are hard to come by, Kashenko said.

On May 8, he was ordered to one of the crossings, after the Russians installed pontoons and moved soldiers into the woods on the nearby coast. The Ukrainian infantry advanced into the area the next day but retreated and was defeated, he said.

then they established a defensive line to corner the Russians as they cross the pontoon and they rained down artillery fire about the place.

They also kept destroying the bridge by laying floating mines upstream at lets them pick up the current on Russian pontoons, a tactic that has proven effective. Ukrainian forces blew up four separate bridges at the crossing.

The Russians hurried to put up new pontoons and sent armored vehicles through them, Kashenko said, but they were unable to break the Ukrainian line of defense.

Dozens of armored vehicles and foot soldiers they were trapped and attacked by Ukrainian artillery. The Ukrainians also caught up with Russian troops involved in building the bridge to the more distant coast.

The bombing included some of the first barrages of fire from a newly arrived American artillery cannonthe M777, Kashenko said.

Kashenko added that he offered enemy forces a chance to surrender, shouting into a loudspeaker: “‘Russians, surrender!” But “I don’t know if they heard us.”

Some enemy soldiers escaped swimming in the riversaid the Ukrainians, who have not yet recovered the remains of the Russians scattered in the forest.

In the light that penetrates the leaves, there was food and personal belongings scattered everywhere: a sleeping bag, shower gel bottles, meat cans, a bag of chips, Russian tea bags, sandals.

Ukrainian soldiers found the certificate of a medal awarded to a Russian colonel for fighting earlier in the war. it is called “Military Excellence Award”.

Next to a disabled Russian tank was a cardboard box that seemed to be used to transport supplies. In the box is a strange message for a unit at war: “Always believe there something wonderful will happen“.

Si Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Europe’s former Supreme Allied Commander, made a distinction between Ukrainian tactics of trying to target Russian armored vehicles and troops with artillery and Russian attacks on towns and cities .

“In the big picture, Ukraine is trying to conduct war maneuvers to regain territory and cut redistribution routes,” Breedlove said. “And Russia is doing more than just a war of attrition.”

Regarding the failed crossing of the Russian pontoon, he said, “The Russians did something wrong that is difficult even if you do it very well.”

c.2022 The New York Times Company

Translation: Elisa Carnelli

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